Craig Becker, coowner and manager of Caffe Mediterraneum shows off a capuccino on August 4, 2011. The cafe is the second oldest on the west coast and is also the place where the caffe latte was invented

Photo: Susana Bates, Special To The Chronicle

Craig Becker, coowner and manager of Caffe Mediterraneum shows off...

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A latte is seen at Caffe Mediterraneum on August 4, 2011. The cafe is the second oldest on the west coast and is also the place where the caffe latte was invented

Photo: Susana Bates, Special To The Chronicle

A latte is seen at Caffe Mediterraneum on August 4, 2011. The cafe...

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People sit outside at Caffe Mediterraneum on August 4, 2011. The cafe is the second oldest on the west coast and is also the place where the caffe latte was invented.

Photo: Susana Bates, Special To The Chronicle

People sit outside at Caffe Mediterraneum on August 4, 2011. The...

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Robert Burton makes a drink at Caffe Mediterraneum on August 4, 2011. The cafe is the second oldest on the west coast and is also the place where the caffe latte was invented.

Photo: Susana Bates, Special To The Chronicle

Robert Burton makes a drink at Caffe Mediterraneum on August 4,...

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Robert Burton makes a drink at Caffe Mediterraneum on August 4, 2011. The cafe is the second oldest on the west coast and is also the place where the caffe latte was invented.

Photo: Susana Bates, Special To The Chronicle

Robert Burton makes a drink at Caffe Mediterraneum on August 4,...

Image 6 of 6

A sign is seen at Caffe Mediterraneum on August 4, 2011. The cafe is the second oldest on the west coast and is also the place where the caffe latte was invented

Until the 1950s, Berkeley was a very sensible, mild-mannered college town.

Then in 1957, on Telegraph Avenue, the latte was invented. The place has been fretting and fidgeting ever since.

"When you think 'wired,' what do you think? You think Berkeley," said Richard Hom, a local business owner and coffee aficionado. "This is where coffee is."

Hom and his colleagues at the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce are celebrating the city's long love affair with coffee, caffeine addiction and the art of sitting in cafes all day with the first Berkeley Coffee and Tea Festival.

The festival, scheduled for 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sept. 24 at the Shattuck Hotel, will feature more than 30 coffee roasters, cafes and tea purveyors. It will include panel discussions on brewing the perfect cup, a demonstration of a Japanese tea ceremony, and classes on fair trade versus organic beans. There will also be pastries and plenty of free samples for the twitching hordes.

Long before there was Starbucks or Peet's, there was Caffe Mediterraneum. Opened in 1956 by the owner of Caffe Trieste in San Francisco's North Beach, the original Caffe Med was a kiosk in a bookstore at Haste and Telegraph, just south of UC Berkeley.

Students, of course, have always imbibed huge quantities of coffee. But Caffe Med offered something different: espresso. The first cafe-style espresso maker was invented in the late 1940s in Italy, and by 1956 the wondrous contraption had made its way to Berkeley.

"It caught on right away. Espresso opened a whole new world," said Caffe Med's current owner, Craig Becker, who bought the venerable coffee shop five years ago with his brother.

The latte was invented after customers started complaining that espresso was too bitter. So the barista at Caffe Medbegan adding steamed milk, and the latte was born.

Caffe Med still creates lattes the way it did in the 1950s: two shots of light-roasted, freshly ground espresso in a 16-ounce glass, topped with whole milk steamed until it is smooth, light and shiny, like, Becker insisted, chrome.

"You shouldn't see any bubbles in the foam," said Becker, who's a frequent judge in the Western Regional Barista Championships.

The dawn of espresso fundamentally changed Berkeley. Sitting in cafes all day was no longer considered a sign of laziness. It was a political act.

And then, across town, came Peet's. Dutch immigrant Alfred Peet introduced Berkeley to strong, dark, custom roasted coffee, and a new generation of addicts was born.

"Before he passed, Alfred Peet told me he chose Berkeley because he wanted to be in a place where there was curiosity of mind," said Erica Hess, Peet's spokeswoman. "He wanted to be where people appreciated the quality of the bean and how the roasting could coax out certain flavors, and where that would be nurtured."

The nurturing continues. Peet's now has 193 stores, and Berkeley has hundreds of cafes.

But the craving for coffee only grows.

"It's an unquenching appetite," said Timber Manhart, owner of Catahoula Coffee cafe and roasters, one of the participants in the Berkeley Coffee Fest.

These days, the biggest challenge is persuading millions of Peet's loyalists to try lighter roasts, he said. Like wine, coffee flavors are subtle and highly subjective. And those most serious about their coffee enjoy the ritual as much as the actual product.

"It's not just the coffee, it's the culture of coffee," he said. "We've all grown up on Peet's, but we always want to know about the newest hip buzz."